Cheryl D. Orr

About

Cheryl D. Orr is an elected managing partner of the firm and chair of the firm’s national Labor and Employment Practice Group. Cheryl concentrates her practice on defending employers nationwide against complex wage and hour class, collective, and representative actions arising in industries including retail, health care, education, insurance, finance, and manufacturing. She also has a long history of resolving wrongful termination, unfair competition and discrimination cases through a winning motion practice. In addition to litigation, she provides a full range of employment law counseling, audit and training services.

Cheryl is often quoted in the media on employment law issues. She is a frequent writer and lecturer on employment law topics and regularly chairs the American Conference Institute's national wage and hour class action conference. Chambers USA consistently ranks Cheryl as one of the top employment lawyers in California, and the Daily Journal has named her as one of California’s Top Employment Lawyers and Top Women Lawyers. She is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America and a member of the American Employment Law Council.

Defeating conditional certification of a national FLSA collective action filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging unpaid overtime for all nonexempt employees of a national furniture retailer and getting claims dismissed against the individual defendants;

Defeating class certification on California statewide claims brought by employees of a Big Box store merchandiser in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California for unpaid minimum and overtime wages, meal and rest period premiums, and waiting time and wage statement penalties;

Obtaining complete dismissal of a national FLSA collective action filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California involving "on call" pay and overtime issues for drivers of a national respiratory care company;

Defeating conditional certification for a major clothing retailer in a national collective action brought pursuant to the FLSA in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida wherein the plaintiff alleged wage and hour violations following the reclassification of her position as an Assistant Department Manager from exempt to nonexempt;

Convincing a plaintiff to voluntarily dismiss her California statewide putative class and PAGA representative action filed against a chain retailer in Riverside Superior Court and brought on behalf of California nonexempt employees of a chain baby retailer based upon a showing of compliant policies and practices;

Compelling to arbitration—and ultimately obtaining dismissal with prejudice of all claims—a statewide putative class and representative action brought against a craft store chain in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California that involved meal and rest break, failure to pay wages, inaccurate wage statements, unfair business practices, and PAGA claims;

Striking all state class action claims and limiting conditional certification of an FLSA collective action to three units of a hospital in a class/collective hybrid action brought by a former nurse against a hospital in Wisconsin state court for meal period and overtime claims;

Obtaining summary judgment in (and complete dismissal of) a state wage and hour class action filed in Orange County Superior Court by hourly drivers against a respiratory care company and involving statutory and contractual overtime claims;

Limiting conditional certification of a national FLSA collective action (overtime, travel pay, donning and doffing, off-the-clock) brought in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against an international inventory company to one district and then prevailing on both a decertification and summary judgment motion;

Resolving a statewide putative independent contractor misclassification class action filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against an international packaging company through an individual settlement and dismissal of class claims; and

Obtaining complete voluntary dismissal of a state wage and hour putative class action filed in Washington Superior court against an international retailer (alleging violations of state wage and hour laws concerning payment for training) upon demonstration of compliant policies and practices.

Spearheading both national and state audits, in multiple industries, that focused on employment law compliance generally; wage and hour issues only; or on specific issues, such as the proper classification of exempt employees;

Cheryl Orr is well regarded for her wage and hour expertise and demonstrates deep experience in the field, whilst acting for household name retail clients. Clients praise Orr as ‘methodical in her approach,’ and note that she ‘handles opposing counsel well.’